Amazon building warehouse empire so you can have same-day delivery

News that Seattle’s Amazon.com is revving up to offer customers more same-day delivery has some folks doing a happy dance.

(A happy dance in their pajamas, of course. Because they’re never, ever going to have to leave their houses or interact with another person again.)

The Financial Times reported this week that Amazon plans to build warehouse hubs in major cities all over the country, meaning packages will spend less time in transit and more time sitting on your doorstep waiting for you to come home and rip them open.

The move comes after Amazon reluctantly agreed to collect sales tax in certain states, meaning it now has the ability to set up distribution virtually anywhere in the nation. Already, the company is opening warehouses in California, New Jersey, Texas and Indiana (among other locations).

One thing that brick-and-mortar retailers still had going for them, one reason I still walked into stores with doors, was the fact that I – like so many consumers – am incredibly impatient. When I really want something, I want it in my hands now, not shipped to me in three to five business days.

If Amazon can close that gap too, it removes one of the last drawbacks for a gigantic corporation that already enjoys plenty of advantages. Slate.com went so far as to proclaim the strategy would “destroy” local retail – but that’s just so much clicky-headline hyperbole.

Funny he should mention brick-and-mortar retailers, because that’s exactly who will be hurt if Amazon moves to same-day delivery, according to folks in the know. Slate’s Farhad Manjoo writes:

It’s hard to overstate how thoroughly this move will shake up the retail industry. Same-day delivery has long been the holy grail of Internet retailers, something that dozens of startups have tried and failed to accomplish. (Remember Kozmo.com?) But Amazon is investing billions to make next-day delivery standard, and same-day delivery an option for lots of customers. If it can pull that off, the company will permanently alter how we shop. To put it more bluntly: Physical retailers will be hosed.

There’s no doubt that we’re an impatient society, and growing more impatient by the minute. (I’ll admit to paying for an Amazon Prime membership just so I can have the two-day shipping — and even that seems to take forever if you happen to throw a weekend in the mix.) But are we so impatient that we want to have everything right now?

Amazon seems to think so. And anyone who’s ever looked at the recommend-items lists on Amazon.com knows this is a company that knows way too much about us.